Five Years Outside Their Photos, So I Finally Walked Out Forever novel · Chapter 8 of 24
Chapter 8: The Ferry
I didn't knock this time.
The studio door was unlocked, and Elias was at the long table with his head down over a stack of prints.
He looked up when I came in and put the pencil down very slowly.
"Sabrina said to ask you about the ferry," I said.
He closed his eyes.
"There it is," he said.
"Tell me."
"You should sit."
"I'll stand."
He nodded.
He stood too, and went to the window, and looked at the water for what felt like a full minute.
"Six years ago in March," he said, "I had a fight with my mother. A bad one. I walked out of the house with no coat and took the last ferry to Cutler Island, because it was the only boat leaving."
I stopped breathing.
"It was storming," he said. "The deck was empty. There was only one other person on board, a woman about twenty-three with her hair in a wet braid, eating half a sandwich on a bench with a book open on her knee."
My hands went cold.
"Egg salad," I said.
He turned around.
"It was egg salad," I said. "I was going to see my aunt. I'd forgotten my wallet and I'd only packed one sandwich."
"You gave me the other half."
"You looked like you needed it."
"I did." His voice shook a little on the words. "I'd never been given anything so quickly by a stranger."
I sat down on the stool.
My knees had decided for me.
"You wore a hood," I said. "A big gray hood and a scarf. I never saw your whole face. I only remember a voice."
"And you had a library card in your book as a bookmark, and you said, 'Don't worry, I'll find you, I know where everyone's card is.'"
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